Vegas Veteran Voices

About Vegas Veteran Voices

Vegas Veteran Voices is a raw, unscripted podcast that puts real veterans in the spotlight, not as headlines or hashtags, but as people. Hosted in Las Vegas, the show sits down with veterans from every branch to talk about life after the uniform, identity, purpose, mental health, and the unexpected paths that help them heal. Each episode goes beyond service stories. You will hear honest conversations about transition, dark humor, loss, rebuilding, and the moments that brought meaning back. Guests include combat veterans, creatives, athletes, business owners, and advocates who found their way forward through action, community, and connection. This is not a highlight reel or a motivational poster. Vegas Veteran Voices is real talk 501c3 nonprofit, told without filters, designed to remind veterans they are not alone and to help civilians better understand the cost of service and the strength it takes to keep going. Stories over stigma. Connection saves lives.

Publisher

Vegas Veteran Voices

Category

society & culture · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 May 2025

Latest episode

30 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

59 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   30 Aug 2026

   Every Marine Defends Their Boot Camp. He's One of the Few Who Saw Both. / Randall Parkes USMC

   Every Marine defends their boot camp. Randall Parkes is one of the few alive who saw both sides of it, San Diego recruit, three years as a Parris Island drill instructor, then back to MCRD San Diego as a First Sergeant. Ronnie asks the question every Marine argues about, and for once the answer comes with full context. And that's just the warm-up. Twenty years from a founding MARSOC Raider: walking into the monitor's office to dodge Albuquerque and walking out with orders to a unit he'd never heard of, boot camp on the morning of September 11th, a drill instructor story he's never told on any show, and the phone call from his old interpreter as Kabul fell, eight months of paperwork going nowhere, and the Bro-Call that finished the job in days. Plus turning down Sergeant Major, EMDR at the VA, and the benefits playbook he wants every Marine to run before they get out. This episode is sponsored by Bulkhead Energy — www.bulkheadenergy.com CHAPTERS 0:00 — Cold Open 2:46 — Welcome to Vegas Veteran Voices 6:50 — A Funeral, Dress Blues, and a Navy Dad 8:38 — The $10,000 Offer vs. the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor 10:16 — Security Forces, Bangor, and Coming Home Pale 12:03 — Accidental Orders to MARSOC 15:56 — Boot Camp on September 11th 19:47 — Four Combat Deployments 22:25 — Kandahar and the Gunny 27:11 — Becoming a Drill Instructor 31:23 — The World's Smallest Drill Instructor 35:37 — San Diego vs. Parris Island: The Verdict 37:44 — Turning Down Sergeant Major 42:09 — The Kabul Rescue 50:21 — Using Your Benefits: GI Bill, USC, and the VA Loan 59:45 — EMDR and Mental Health at the VA 1:05:04 — Wrap-Up 1:05:38 — Outtake: Full Send If you're a veteran in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, call 988 and press 1, or text 838255. The Veterans Crisis Line is free and confidential, 24/7. Vegas Veteran Voices is a Las Vegas–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization telling veteran stories with the production they deserve. New episodes every Friday. #MarineCorps #ParrisIsland #Veterans

2. 

   21 Aug 2026

   SIGINT Marine, 20 Years. When Kabul Fell He Gave Them Names.

   Radio Battalion is chock full of nerds. Edward Haines would know. He led them. He signed an infantry contract in 1995. Somewhere in boot camp the Marine Corps pulled him out of his platoon, sat him in a back room, and had him do things with language and sound that nobody explained. He walked out of there a signals intelligence Marine and spent the next twenty years in rooms most people will never hear about. Radio Recon selection on Friday the 13th, 1996. Reconnaissance course. Airborne. SERE. Three MEUs back to back out of First Radio Battalion in Hawaii, learning to swim in cammies with a kettlebell in his hands. During the invasion of Iraq he was pushed out forward of the infantry, because that is what recon means when it goes in front of your billet. Later, Fort Meade and the National Security Operations Center. Fifty-some Marines under him at one point. Two soldiers at another. Retired a Master Sergeant in 2015. Ten years out, there are still parts he will not get into. The men he led were not what you would picture. MIT dropouts who ran out of tuition money. Cal Berkeley guys. Linguists with top secret clearances at nineteen. All of them, by the needs of the Marine Corps, still had to sweep the parking lot and cut the bushes. Almost all of them understood that. One of them did not, and took his objection further than anyone at that battalion thought a person could take it. By his last deployment to Afghanistan, Ed was I MEF, headquarters, behind the wire and full admin by his own description. He and some others ran CrossFit on base. A couple of the local Afghan linguists trained with them. Then Kabul fell. He got involved with some folks. He gave them names. Some of his linguists got out. He will tell you it is still twisted in his mind, because he knows they could not get everybody, and he knows there are people still over there who are afraid, and there is nothing he can do about it. That one keeps him up. Also in this one: the MEU that flew its helicopters home and left his team stranded in the hills at Camp Pendleton, and how a payphone, a shopette, and a case of Natty Light got them back. The machine gunners who wore plastic vampire teeth on patrol in Iraq, in front of kids who had not seen an American since the eighties. Morse code at Fort Huachuca until the whole schoolhouse started clicking at each other in the chow line. Today Ed is a licensed athletic trainer at Coronado High School in Henderson. He tapes ankles for kids who were not born when he first deployed. He will tell you he was not much of an athlete himself, that he made the football team rather than played on it, and not to go looking through the old papers for his name. Then he will tell those kids that not being the star does not mean your life stops here. Twenty years of listening to people who did not know he was there. He is still not looking to be seen. Stories Over Stigma. Guest: Edward Haines, USMC (Ret.), Master Sergeant, 20 years, SIGINT / 2600 Host: Ron "Ronnie" Long, USMC, OIF --- 0:00 Chock full of nerds 1:17 Welcome back to Triple V 1:26 Growing up in Las Vegas 5:38 GI Joe, dad, and the recruiter's phone call 7:00 Why the military before college 8:39 Standards, and who can hold them 10:49 The special recruiter nobody tells you about 14:19 Morse code at Fort Huachuca 16:29 First Radio Battalion, Hawaii 19:56 Selection on Friday the 13th 20:48 Three MEUs back to back 24:44 The MEU left us in the hills 28:15 Kuwait, Camp Commando, and over the border 29:59 What Radio Recon actually does 32:39 Vampire teeth on patrol 33:58 Break 34:00 Comms as an E-3 with nobody above or below 35:42 Delegation, burnout, and learning to let go 40:30 Why Ronnie does this 41:47 Welcome back 42:13 Too good for yard work 51:22 The fall of Kabul and the names he passed 56:32 What it costs, and who chooses to stay 59:36 Found and lost over there 1:01:21 Out in 2015, and the CrossFit gym that never happened 1:03:29 Finding athletic training 1:06:35 Working with teenagers who heal in front of you 1:08:45 Mentoring kids toward the military 1:11:18 The weekend brief 1:12:33 Outro

3. 

   14 Aug 2026

   Get Out Of Your Own Way | Bruce Cardenas, USMC + LAPD

   Bruce Cardenas grew up in a New Jersey steel mill town of 1,200 people. He wanted one thing: a badge. The police chief looked at him and said "you're young, dumb and immature." Then he told him exactly where to go instead. The Marine Corps. What happened after that doesn't make sense on paper. LAPD, January 1988, right before the most chaotic decade in the city's history. The riots. Rodney King. The earthquake. Every single day of the OJ trial, standing at the courthouse. He was involved in all of them, and what he says about the officers he knew will stop you cold. Then he walked away from full-time patrol and everything changed again. A gym conversation with a woman making protein bars in her kitchen turned into Quest Nutrition. Celebrity protection turned into a multi-million dollar company. Mariah Carey. Ricky Martin. J-Lo. Today he's with Legendary Foods, a snack company spending $20 million a year of its own money on cancer and heart disease research. He's a patient in one of the studies. He'll tell you why. And he's still a cop. Seven dollars a month. This episode is about what happens when somebody tells you no and what it costs to prove them right about where to go instead. ️ Vegas Veteran Voices Stories Over Stigma

Who has been a guest on Vegas Veteran Voices

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dave Berlin
• Six veterans
• Ronnie Long
• Ureal Irving
• Antonio Loves Wings

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

37,924

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 64 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

87

Social presence

0

YouTube

72

Engagement

32

Contact Vegas Veteran Voices

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.